As part of ILO’s project with the Small and Micro Enterprise Promotion Service (SMEPS) to improve Yemeni youth’s accessto Decent Work, the Mubadara Entrepreneurship Education programme was developed and pilot tested in eight Yemeni universities targeting youth in their graduating year. As part of the programme, a business plan competition is planned to be held in partnership with the private sector and the sponsorship of Al Tadhamon and Al Kuraimi Banks. The winners of the competition will receive financial and/or in-kind support for the establishment of their business start-up.

As part of the programme, a Training of Coaches (TOC) workshop was held in Al Bustan Hotel in Sana’a between November 28 and December 5, 2014. The workshop targeted 26 professors and private sector employees from different areas of Yemen; these men and women will be coaching the 50 graduates whose business plans are selected for entry in the business plan competition. The participants were enthusiastic to learn coaching skills and support Yemeni youth in developing their business plans.

Approximately 380 plans were submitted by students after taking the Mubadara course, showing their great interest in establishing their own business in the future. In 2014, the Mubadara programme reached a total of 1,044 students in 8 universities with 24 teachers instructing across 5 governorates of Yemen.

During the training of coaches’ workshop, a number of prominent Yemenis showed their support for fostering entrepreneurial attitudes among Yemeni youth and the need for close involvement of the private sector to facilitate the process and coach these young people. The opening ceremony speakers included Mr. Youssef Kuraimi, Head of Al Kuraimi Bank, Mr. Rifaat El Miamary, Deputy of the Executive Director at Al Tadhamon Bank, Dr. Ali Qassem, Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and Mr. Ibrahim Al Hugari, former Minister of Technical Education and Vocational Training.

In addition, the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Mr. Mohammad Motahar and Mr. Al Nashmy, Dean of the Faculty of Public Administration from the University of Sciences and Technology, attended the workshop’s closing ceremony and distributed certificates of attendance to the participants. The Minister expressed his support of the Mubadara programme and expressed the need to establish entrepreneurship centers in Yemeni universities.

Currently, a revision of the business plans is underway and the top 50 applicants will be contacted in the coming weeks to confirm their enrolment in the Business Plan Competition and move forward in further developing their plans with their assigned coaches.

Following the successful implementation of the KAB programme in Yemen and at the request of the Minister of Higher Education to include entrepreneurship topics in university curricula, ILO developed a new entrepreneurship programme, “Mubadara”, which is an advanced curriculum targeting senior students in public and private universities.

The aim under the current ILO Youth Employment Project YEM/12/50/NOR in Yemen is to pilot the programme in 7 public and private universities in Yemen and reach out to more than 1000 students during the fall semester of the 2013-2014 academic year.

The “Mubadara” implementation modality is composed of three main components:

Integrating the curriculum in the selected public and private universities and building the capacity of their faculty members to teach it using an experiential methodology.

Ensuring quality execution and close monitoring of business plan formulation with the assistance of trained private sector coaches.

Implementing a national business plan competition which would allow students to apply their learning and increase private sector involvement in supporting entrepreneurship in Yemen.

The launching event of the “Mubadara” programme was held on Thursday July 4th, 2013 at the Bustan Hotel in Sana’a. There were more than 50 attendees from the 7-8 participating universities including, Mr. Mohammed Mottahar, Deputy Minister of Education, Mr. Ali Kassem, MoHE Secretary General, partner banks, representatives of the young businessmen committee of the FCCI and the press. Following the formal opening made by Mr. Kassem (MoHE), Mr. Qaid (SMEPS), Mr. Kalai and Ms. Bikhazi (ILO), all 7 universities and 2 partner banks reviewed the MOU to be signed with SMEPS for the implementation of the “Mubadara” programme and signed it.

There was a general positive atmosphere and all project partners expressed willingness and readiness to take part in the “Mubadara” pilot.

The upcoming Mubadara TOT is scheduled to take place in September 2013 after which teachers will start piloting it in their respective universities.

Under the framework of the ILO-SMEPS/KAB project in Yemen, the KAB NKF certification process was initiated by the Enterprise Development Specialist on January 12th 2013 in Yemen as part of the nationalization phase of the programme.

Five potential KAB NKFs delivered two KAB TOFs simultaneously at the Bustan Hotel from 12-24 January 2013 for their certification under the technical monitoring of the Enterprise Development Specialist and 2 KAB Regional Key Facilitators. A total of 48 teachers and one official from SMEPS took part in the two KAB TOF workshops.

The nationalization of the programme requires training an additional 100 teachers to be able to cover the remaining vocational centres and complete the commitment made by SMEPS to the MTEVT. The certification of the five NKFs would lead to the institutionalization of the KAB programme in Yemen and will ensure its sustainability at the end of the current ILO project.

The preparations of both workshops were very well done and it is noteworthy to mention that the 4 trainers (in addition to Ms. Khlood Shaker who is very competent but works at SMEPS as the KAB Coordinator) worked extensively ahead of the training and until late hours at night. They were all present at 7:30am to prepare and adjust the training rooms and stayed until 20:00 for their individual coaching sessions taking comments and observations very positively and showing their readiness and willingness to improve.

After evaulating the performance assessments, 4 KAB facilitators were certified as KAB National Key Facilitators and can all proceed with the delivery of up-coming KAB TOFs in Yemen.

ILO and SMEPS are very pleased with this outcome and proud of the project's achievements so far that are leading to the sustainability of the KAB programme in Yemen.

Under the framework of the ILO/KAB project in Yemen and the decision of the MTEVT to nationalize the KAB programme in Yemen, a KAB National Key Facilitators’ Workshop was held in Sana’a from 12 to 17 November 2012. The KAB NKF was facilitator by two KAB Regional Key Facilitators (RKFs). Throughout the workshop, the RKFs thoroughly observed the performance of KAB teachers to assess their competencies as potential NKFs. As part of their certification, the participants were given a written KAB exam covering the KAB Games and a written KAB exam covering the content and training techniques of the KAB programme.

Following the potential NKFs performance during the workshop and in the KAB exam:

6 participants were recommended as potential KAB NKFs (5 from the Ministry of TVET and 1 from SMEPS). These potential KAB NKFs can also perform the duties of the KAB supervisors.

13 KAB teachers from the Ministry of TVET were deemed able to perform KAB supervisory duties in addition to teaching KAB to students.

7 KAB teachers were not recommended to perform KAB supervisory duties. These teachers will continue teaching KAB to students.

KAB Follow-Up Workshop on new KAB topics 18-20 November 2012

A three days training workshop on the new KAB topics namely Green Enterprises, Social Security, Decent Work, Gender and People with Disabilities was held from 18 to 20 November 2012. The workshop was opened by H.E Abdel Hafez Thabet Neeman Minister ofTechnical and Vocational Education and Training(TVET) who stressed on the need for entrepreneurship education in Yemen and inaugurated the national roll-out of the KAB programme and the new KAB 2013 version of the package which has been customized to fit the Yemeni socio-economic background. H.E also met with the ILO Enterprise Development Specialist to discuss the nationalization plan for the KAB programme. He also suggested ways to support enterprise development in Yemen such as the establishment of a bank that specifically caters for the needs of SMEs. The event was extensively covered by the media which documented the keynote speeches and the workshop proceedings[1].

During the workshop, small groups of participants (2-3 participants in each group) delivered the new topics added to the KAB programme; additionally, group discussions were held and further explanations of the topics were provided by the RKFs. The facilitators presented examples of how the topics of Gender and People with Disabilities are fully integrated in the KAB topics. The participants also discussed all the suggested changes to the Yemeni KAB version to finalize the package. The latest KAB 2013 Arabic version will be provided to SMEPS and to the Ministry of TVET to be used in the upcoming KAB TOF workshops. One session was allocated to discuss the suggested scenarios for the implementation of KAB in technical education and vocational training institutions.

[1] Articles in Arabic covering the event can be accessed through the following links:

Under the framework of the ILO/KAB project in Yemen and the decision of the MTEVT to nationalize the KAB programme in Yemen, a 2 day adaptation workshop was facilitated by the ILO-RO SME Specialist and an ILO KAB Regional Key Facilitator in the presence of a Yemeni delegation/programme review committee which included:

The objective of the workshop was to customize the generic Arabic KAB version to the socio-economic and cultural context of Yemen based on the comments of the committee. Additions of new topics related to Decent Work, Social Security and Green Enterprises were also made.

The 2 days adaptation workshop was successful, most of the changes requested by the Yemeni review committee were approved by the ILO and it was agreed to introduce the new added topics to the trainers in the up-coming National Key Facilitator workshop (NKF) scheduled to be held sometime in November in Sana’a. As a result of the NKF workshop, a number of potential Yemeni NKFs will be selected to conduct 4 TOFs under the ILO/SMEPS project before the end of the year. This comes as a result of the MTEVT request that needs an additional 100 KAB teachers to complete the nationalization process of the programme.

A KAB ToT workshop was held in Aden Yemen at the Mercure Hotel from January 23 till February 2, 2011.

The ToT was delivered by Mr. Ahmed Abdulbary, KAB Regional Key Facilitator and was co-facilitated by Mr. Wael Ghosn, KAB National Facilitator (Lebanon) under the overall supervision of Rania Bikhazi, KAB International Key Facilitator and Enterprise Development Specialist at the ILO Regional Office for Arab States.

The Workshop included 27 participants of which 13 were women which provided a gender balanced environment. The workshop evaluation showed that the training exceeded the particpants expectations and introduced them to various participatory approach techniques.

In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region countries such as Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen, have introduced or are in the process of introducing the Know About Business (KAB) entrepreneurship education at various educational levels such as secondary, post-secondary, vocational and technical schools and higher education

The objective of this international conference on entrepreneurship education was to bring together politicians, researchers, educators, practitioners and students mainly from Arabian countries to discuss and share knowledge and experiences with a view to develop better policies and guidelines for the promotion of self-employment and youth entrepreneurship through entrepreneurship education. 190 participants from 28 countries shared their experience and knowledge about entrepreneurship education. The present document synthesizes the main discussions and recommendations made during the conference.

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A Yemen news provider Sabanews.net and the University of Aden published four articles on KAB in Yemen.

The first Article covers the event "KAB Awareness Raising Workshop" that was held on January 19, 2011 in Sanaa in the presence of H.E Dr. Ibrahim Hugari, Minister of Technical Education and Vocational Training and Ms. Rania Bikhazi, Entreprise Development Specialist at the International Labor Organization, Regional Office for Arab States.

The second Article, dated January 18, 2011, covers the KAB implementation plan in technical and vocational training centres for the year 2011-2012.

The Third and fourth Articles dated January 26, 2011 cover the KAB Workshop that was held under the patronage of H.E the Minister of higher education Dr. Salah Ali Basra at the Mercure Hotel in Yemen.

Background Information

The second KAB follow-up workshop was organized to review the performance of the trainers trained in August 2008, discuss the challenges faced in the delivery of KAB and present the new topics of KAB version 2009.

Following the two TOT workshops conducted in August 2008, the Ministry of Technical Education and Vocational Training decided to pilot implement the KAB programme in select vocational and technical institutes in parallel to the existing training curricula entitled business management which was felt inappropriate. Fifty four (54) trainers from vocational and technical training institutes and technical colleges attended the two TOT workshops.

The KAB was implemented by 21 teachers in 21 technical and vocational training institutes in 2008-2009. A total of 1600 students enrolled in the programme. The programme was delivered over a period 96 hours (three sessions per week for 32 weeks) per academic year.

The Workshop Sessions

The workshop was facilitated by Ms. Rania Bikhazi, Samih Jaber and Ahmad Abdulbary the KAB coordinator in Yemen It was conducted at the Mecure Hotel in Sana’a from 8-9/12/2009 from 8:30 in the morning till 16:30 in the afternoon with two coffee breaks and lunch break.

Out of the 21 teachers who piloted the KAB, fourteen teachers attended the workshop. In addition, (5) supervisors from the curriculum and standards departments of the Ministry of Technical Education and Vocational Training attended the workshop

One session was allocated for group work to evaluate the KAB programme by the teachers and provide their comments and feedback following their first year of KAB pilot testing. The session tackled the appropriateness and suitability of the KAB programme content and teaching methodology in addition to the provision of recommendations for the expansion of its implementation.

Two participants presented the groups work in the presence of His Excellency Dr, Ibrahim Hugary- the Minister, Dr.Abdulqader Al Olaby- Deputy of Curricula and Continuous Education Sector, Dr. Ibtihaj Al Kamal - Deputy of Standards and Quality Sector and other ministry officials.

His Excellency the Minister expressed his satisfaction for the good results highlighted by the teachers and assured the attendees that the Ministry will integrate the KAB programme in the curricula of the technical and vocational training in Yemen provided that the final comprehensive KAB evaluation will confirm the good highlighted results.

The Minister requested the ILO and SMEPS to help the ministry in providing the required equipments, tools and logistics for integrating KAB programme in the curricula of the technical education and vocational training in Yemen.